A study published today in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine looks at obesity rates among children. Among the findings: in 2007, 31.6 percent …
Category: Diseases + conditions
South Africa's ambitious plan to tackle HIV/AIDS
For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of South Africans languished and died in the shadow of AIDS as the country’s president, Thabo Mbeki, …
Lawmaker proposes Medi-Cal coverage of Stanford chronic-disease program
Chronic disease such as athritis and diabetes affects millions of Americans, including half of all Californians, and is responsible for more than 75 percent of …
FDA warns spas about fat-busting claims
I'm getting married in a year and, like any smart groom, I know that I can't let myself go until after the wedding. So I've …
Bill Gates on a low-tech, high-value initiative to reduce AIDS in Africa
Bill Gates writes about a low-tech, low-cost initiative to reduce the transmission of HIV in South Africa: After that, I travelled 590 kilometers northwest of …
Guidance on how to talk with kids about weight
With First Lady Michelle Obama launching a nationwide campaign tackling childhood obesity, we've been hearing a lot about the issue in the news lately. This …
Circumcising newborns to prevent HIV
Circumcision as a way to prevent HIV emerged as a hot topic in 2007, when the first large-scale studies from Africa showed it could reduce …
Sir Mix-a-Lot called upon to describe findings of obesity study
It's not always easy to write about scientific research and medical findings in super fun, creative ways - which is why clever headlines and catchy …
Helping Rwandan orphans avoid HIV
Among the tragic side-effects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide is that so many children were left behind after witnessing the trauma of seeing many family …
HIV travel ban lifted – finally
This week, the United States began allowing HIV-positive individuals to enter the country for the first time in 22 years. This shameful policy prohibiting U.S. …
Study shows men may be more resistant to mouth wrinkles
Sorry, ladies. When it comes to preventing laugh lines, crinkles in the upper lip, or a sagging jawline, we may be genetically handicapped, according to …
ReadWriteWeb assembles list of social Web authors discussing HIV/AIDS
I am admittedly very late to seeing this post, but ReadWriteWeb posted an excellent list of bloggers and Twitter users discussing HIV/AIDS. (The post was …
Trimming treatment for AIDS patients
I read the New York Times account of the president’s new AIDS plan, and all that came to mind were the images of people I …
How to best care for AIDS orphans in Africa
During my travels in Kenya, I met a toddler named Mary Maishon who at one time had been a starved bundle of rags. She had …
Some sobering reflections on World AIDS Day
On World AIDS Day, I typically take time to reflect on the people I have met who have been affected by this ongoing crisis. They …
New book shows the pain and hope of AIDS orphans
My colleague Ruthann Richter has both a professional and personal connection with AIDS: she has been covering AIDS as a medical writer since the early …